Category: Motivational Monday

I haven’t done a motivational monday type quote in a while, so here we are! First, I want to preface this with saying this: there is no one way path to success. Yes, there are multiple ways to succeed; however the general thought and idea in this quote can be greatly applied to everyone in any part of their life in which they wish to grow, achieve, and succeed.

I know I’ve talked about this idea on my blog before, but you really do have to fail in order to succeed. This is not saying you have to be a “failure” by any means. Just because you have failed does not mean you are a failure; if this were the case the whole world would be populated with failures, every single corner and crack. I believe that the only true failures are those who give-up and neglect to see the beauty and opportunity in their own failure. Trust me, I know this is easier said than done so let me break it down.

When you try an idea or do something new and it doesn’t work, you haven’t failed–you’ve simply found out that you must try another way. Every failure you may encounter is just bringing you one step closer to that goal, that dream, that success story. If you look at every defeat or failure in this way, then you should no longer be afriad to try something new or start a new task, job, etc. because you know that it’s going to take you one of two ways–both paths leading to the same destination: ultimate success. Very rarely does anyone succeed the first time (if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again anyone?) it’s only after numerous trial-and-error that they find the path to reach success. This is the opportunity waiting to be found in failure.

Okay so now you know all this information, but knowing is only half the battle. Just like anything in life, simply knowing how to do something or information won’t do anything until you actually put it into action and do it. So the other half is accepting and applying this to your life. That will let you know if you’re ready to succeed or not. Just as the quote says if you aren’t willing to fail, you aren’t ready to succeed. And if you look back at what we just talked about, this makes sense.

Failure is the path to growth, for along the way you learn from each mistake/defeat, and grow stronger, and overcome continuing towards achieving your goals. So if you aren’t ready or willing to fail, you won’t ever get on the path to success. But more than that, I think, that if you aren’t willing (whether physically, emotionally, mentally) to make mistakes or fail a few times, then you actually aren’t ready to handle and take on the path to success or what success will bring. You have to want to succeed more than any feel of failure, doubt, defeat, etc., and when you’re willing to face those failures, then you’re ready to succeed.

What if I’m not ready or willing to fail? Honestly, that’s okay and it takes a lot to even admit that to yourself. You won’t be ready to succeed at everything at every point in your life, there will many different stages of your life. I’ll admit it: there are parts of my life right now that I thought I wanted to succeed and I still do, but after reading this quote I realize that I am not ready to. There are areas that I am still terrified to fail in and I’m not sure I’m ready to full-on tackle the willingness to fail, so I now realize I am not ready to succeed yet. This doesn’t mean that I don’t want to succeed or won’t ever, it just means I have bigger things to work on right now. And that’s okay!! If you do feel like this, instead work on figuring out the reasons why you’re not willing to fail, and combatting those. Work on overcoming the fear and accepting the failure, so that you can succeed. And one day you will.

If you want to succeed bad enough, you will eventually realize and accept and be willing to fail so that you can find the right path and achieve success. It’s not a quick-fix, a short journey, or an easy process, but even if I am not ready to fail yet, I sure as heck am not ready to give-up either. And that’s what I think is important. Even if you aren’t ready to succeed by failing yet, if you aren’t ready to give up on what you want, that means you are willing to work, fight, and battle for it every day. That means that one day you will be willing to fail and ready to succeed.

I haven’t done a #MotivationalMonday in a while, so I don’t actually know what number it is, but it’s okay because I think the title “Just Start” will be plenty perfect for today’s post! I know a lot of people are scared to jump all-in, to just start from where they are and start doing what they love, want, etc. They think that they need this elaborate plan, or countless fancy resources, when in reality, only ONE thing is needed: yourself–okay and maybe your desire. You just have to start.

I think this quote perfectly sums up the equation for success–however you may define that for yourself. Let me break it down.

Start where you are. In order to get where you want to be, the only place you can start is right where you are. It doesn’t make sense to spend time trying to get to a better or different place, because you’re just wasting time, energy, and resources going from that “new” place to where you want to be. By trying to become better first, you’re going to start heading there anyway so might as well commit from the start and go on, full-speed ahead!

Use what you have. Most resources are limited, you must do what you can to make the most of what you have. I know and have seen many people try to gather as much info as possible, or buy everything they’ll need to succeed, only to watch themselves not get very far. There is no special thing that everyone must have to succeed or get where you want to go; so stop spending the time, money, and energy trying to obtain those resources that aren’t going to help you. Instead use the time, money, resources, tools, opportunities, etc. that you’ve got to your advantage to propel you forward rather than losing valuable time trying to buy the next big thing. Now granted, yes there are times when you certainly need something to get you somewhere (equipment, training, etc.), BUT most of the time the other little parts come from using what you’ve already got. You see, the key isn’t to have the most, it’s to make the most of what you have.

Do what you can. Not everybody can do everything, we all have our special skills, passions, abilities, and talents. Which makes sense because if we were all the same that would be boring, there would be no uniqueness or differentiation in the world! So instead of trying to be someone else, or do something that you know you can’t do, focus your energy and time on doing what you can and being who you are. This isn’t to say that you’ll never be able to get to a certain level of doing something that you want to, it just means that in this current moment it is not attainable for you whether that be due to physical conditions, financial reasons, situational issues, etc. People often do damage to their lives by struggling and striving so hard to do something they just can’t. Instead, set your goals and end sight on that task, and do what you can right now to reach that end destination! Your situation and life is unique to you, you have special things that only you can do so do everything you can so that one day you can do what you once couldn’t or thought you couldn’t do.

I know it can be hard to do all these things because we want to plan, to have all the answers and get everything situated out. But, life isn’t always like that–in fact, it rarely is! Instead of saying you’re going to plan to do something or talking about it, just START doing it! Focus and do what you can, with what you have, right from where you are. I promise that you will be happy, successful, healthy, and living a life you love. You will be Beyoutifully Healthy!

Recently, I’ve been aiming to do an hour of personal development a day. I am currently reading The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha, and I am really enjoying it. (I will be doing a blog at the end of May with all the personal development books I’ve read and would recommend!) While I was reading the first few chapters, there was one section in particular that stood out to me–and I think it was because of a quote that was in the book. It got me thinking about attitude and just how important it can really be in our lives. I know I’ve heard/seen this quote before so it’s not new, but if you take the time to go deeper in and apply this to your own life rather than just reading it, I think it can make the world of difference for you!

As much as we would like to think we are in complete control of what happens to us, our relationships, lives, futures, etc., the truth is we just aren’t. This doesn’t mean that you can’t plan, prepare, work hard, and achieve your goals to help create the future you want. There are times that you can very well control most of what happens just by how you work and prepare. However, there are so many outside circumstances and factors that go into what actually happens to us–things that are completely out of our control. But you know what is in our control? How we react to the situation, how we handle what comes our way, how we deal with life’s moments–basically it comes down to one thing: our attitude.

So many times people will blame others for their situation or for how their lives are going–which usually leads to a pretty upset, frustrating, downcast life. But that’s their choice. If you look at life like the quote does, you’ll realize that you can’t control what happens to you, so why let it control you and your life? Only10%of your life consists of things that happen to you, the things that you can not control. So, that means that 90% of your life consists of things that you can control. And that one thing you can control is your reaction!!

If you choose to let your circumstances control you and always react poorly no matter the situation, then you’re going to continue attracting those kinds of situations in your life. But, if you choose to stay positive and grateful, and see the joy and good things in every situation (especially the bad ones), then you will start to have a new outlook on life, a new perspective, and quite honestly a new life! It’s okay to be upset or disappointed by certain circumstances or things that happen, it’s human nature! But what’s not okay is going around blaming everything, throwing a tantrum and letting those things take over your life. You can’t control it so why let it get to you? Think of it this way: you buy a few lottery tickets just for fun. You obviously can’t control who wins the lottery, right? So if you don’t win why would you go around sulking, hating life, blaming your neighbor or your stupid boss or the fact that you could only buy 2 instead of 3 tickets, and ultimately just reacting so poorly to it? You might be a tiny bit sad, but you wouldn’t do those things right, that would be a little much! Same thing applies to daily occurrences in life! Think about that.

This is exactly why attitude is so important. You can make or break a situation or even the course of your life all just by how you react to something out of your control. Heck, even if it was something in your control, it’s just one event, one time, one thing–why let it affect and control your whole life? Instead, focus on the fact that life is mostly made up of our reactions, our responses, and our attitudes towards people, things, situations, experiences, etc. (90%!!!) Decide that you are going to have a positive attitude no matter what, try to find the good or the learning experience in every moment–that’s how you’ll grow as a person!

Rather than striving to “fix” or “change” your life/circumstances, learn to fix and change the way you react. I promise you, you will change your life for the better!

Consider that my first challenge group is starting up today, I thought this was the perfect quote for today’s MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY!! Plus, this can be taken and applied to just about everything in life: relationships, jobs, fitness, health, life in general, etc.

Life is not static, and neither are we. We are all constantly progressing, growing, changing, moving in our everyday lives. Some moments are bigger and show it more clearly, such as deciding on a new job or getting married. Most moments however are smaller and making little movements in our lives yet these are the things that have a BIG impact! Each and every moment–both big and small–has the ability to change us, to take us down a new path in a new direction and completely change our journey’ course. Just think about that, it may seem heavy, but isn’t it true? Every decision we make is changing us somehow in someway. So wouldn’t we want the changes to be positive? The experiences to be pleasant? Of course we would, and that can all happen if we simply choose to challenge ourselves. Now, some of you are probably thinking but if it’s too challenging, I’ll fail and that will never make me happy or have a positive impact. But it will, let me explain.

If you choose to stay in your bubble, your comfort zone then every decision you make is going to keep you right where you are; it’ll change the possibilities for your future because you don’t want to move at all. It is only when you challenge yourself, when you take that leap of faith and step outside of your comfort zone that you can truly begin to grow into who you can, want to and will become. Challenges are hard, that’s the only way they change you. Think about it in other terms. If you want your muscles to grow and change, you have to lift heavy weight that’s hard. Beautiful rocks and stones are carved and made from intense heat and heavy pressure. This is all good news for us though becsuse we constantly are facing obstacles and challenges–the only way we can go is keep pushing forward.

When you do something challenging and fail (which is going to happen because it is…well…challenging), it’s in those moments that you realize what you are capable of, you begin to grow and change as a person, and you overcome the failure!! It’s when you hit rock bottom that you realize something has to change (probably yourself and/or your attitude) and you begin working to overcome and find a new way around those obstacles to reach your goals. It’s in those defining moments, whether big or small, that you make the switch in your head to persevere and be disciplined in everything that you continue to do. I’m not saying it is easy, but if it were everybody would do it!

Don’t be afriad to challenge yourself because you’re afriad of change!! I completely understand liking to stay in your comfortable bubble that you’re used to–I’m the same way! But what I have come to learn and teach myself is that life really does begin outside of your comfort zone. When you do something that scares you or take those challenging opportunities that come your way, bit-by-bit you are learning to persevere, overcome, and ultimately thrive! No good change came from doing the same thing over and over again, staying exactly right where you are. No. Good things come when you choose to take that step out and truly grow. Because after all…If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you!!